“I think lots of people in the paddock wish they could have Adrian’s car so they could show that they’re just as competitive as Sebastian,” Hamilton said. “Fernando, for me, is more accurate. He hits all the apexes [the racing line through a corner].

“Sebastian misses four apexes on a single lap and still goes quickest. He goes off and he still goes quickest. And I think ‘Holy crap, I couldn’t do that lap even if I was on the limit’. His car is just that far ahead of everyone else’s.”

“I think he’s a true champion,” Hamilton said. “He’s polite, he’s never in trouble, he’s squeaky clean and a genuinely nice guy. He speaks incredibly well and carries himself really well. And at the end of the day you have to do the job even if you do have the best car.”

“He qualifies really well, he pulls out fantastic gaps. But when your car is that far ahead it’s easier to do that.”

He may be effusive in his praise for Vettel's character, but nothing like it when it comes to his driving. Anyway missing 4 apexes and going off are over-exaggeration. It's good for him that he thinks lot of people could be as competitive as Vettel in Red Bull. But he is in for a rude awakening if he ever goes up against Vettel in the same car. The fact is Hamilton wanted to drive for Red Bull, but Red Bull said 'No thanks, we would continue with Vettel'. This is a bit of loose talk and is quite disrespecting of Vettel's driving skills.

If he continues to win multiple championships and Hamilton and Alonso continue along the same vein, Vettel would not be one of the many others, but rated even higher those two. Only the British fans and Spanish fans tend to rate Vettel less than those two. His championships and wins speak for themselves in most parts of the world.

As lewis rightly knows, clipping the apexes you see on a racing line diagram is not always the fastest way round a circuit. How you string corners together is where your lap time comes from. Sometimes you fudge a corner to get a better exit to the next bit. It all depends on what the car setup favors, and your driving style. Lewis knows that, hes just being cheeky and jumping on the "its all Adrian" bandwagon that seems to be exceeding its capacity right now.

As lewis rightly knows, clipping the apexes you see on a racing line diagram is not always the fastest way round a circuit. How you string corners together is where your lap time comes from. Sometimes you fudge a corner to get a better exit to the next bit. It all depends on what the car setup favors, and your driving style. Lewis knows that, hes just being cheeky and jumping on the "its all Adrian" bandwagon that seems to be exceeding its capacity right now.

He may be effusive in his praise for Vettel's character, but nothing like it when it comes to his driving. Anyway missing 4 apexes and going off are over-exaggeration. It's good for him that he thinks lot of people could be as competitive as Vettel in Red Bull. But he is in for a rude awakening if he ever goes up against Vettel in the same car.

Hamilton has watched Vettels 36 year old team mate out qualify him 7 times this season. That's not impressive and I think Vettel would be in for a rude shock if Hamilton ever sat next to him in the same car, if he's finding a driver like Webber so competitive.

lol, Hamilton is right. Last race both Redbull drivers had poor laps yet locked out the front row.

Nobody got it right in India. Alonso failed to improve on his second lap. And even Massa being in an older spec qualified right behind him despite making a mistake.Sure Vettel is now always perfect in qualifying. But neither is Alonso or Hamilton. In the last couple of years, Vettel has shown that if he has a shot at pole, more times than not he will take it. Not allways, todays F1 is too competetive for that. But Vettel has done many poles where Red Bull did not lock out the frontrow.

Hamilton has watched Vettels 36 year old team mate out qualify him 7 times this season. That's not impressive and I think Vettel would be in for a rude shock if Hamilton ever sat next to him in the same car, if he's finding a driver like Webber so competitive.

Hamilton was outqualified by button last year on many occasions. Now, his fanboys say, he simply had a bad year. But he had a completly bad year. Vettel struggled at the beginning of this season to get to grips with the new car in qualifying. But he overcame his problems and started to dominate webber again in the second part of the season. Overall he dominated his teammate over the last three years. Against a guy, who never lost a quali-duel to a teammate before.

So what are you trying to say? That Webber isn't as good as Button, who best your driving god last year fair and square

Hamilton was spot on with those comments. The Red Bull does not require the same level of 'on the limit' precision to get a fast lap time as its competitors. It's not Vettels fault. Like Lewis says, he still has to drive the thing well.

Hamilton was outqualified by button last year on many occasions. Now, his fanboys say, he simply had a bad year. But he had a completly bad year. Vettel struggled at the beginning of this season to get to grips with the new car in qualifying. But he overcame his problems and started to dominate webber again in the second part of the season. Overall he dominated his teammate over the last three years. Against a guy, who never lost a quali-duel to a teammate before.

So what are you trying to say? That Webber isn't as good as Button, who best your driving god last year fair and square

lol...many occasions still less than the number of times Webber has outqualified SV so far this year. LH had a bad bad year but still outqualified JB 14 - 6.

This year JB has outqualified LH 3 times, Spa with a different setup, Hockenheim, wet with a diff strategy and Japan where something was broken on his car...

I really wish we could have seen LH and SV in same car.... SV is fast but I have little doubt about the outcome.

Hamilton was outqualified by button last year on many occasions. Now, his fanboys say, he simply had a bad year. But he had a completly bad year. Vettel struggled at the beginning of this season to get to grips with the new car in qualifying. But he overcame his problems and started to dominate webber again in the second part of the season. Overall he dominated his teammate over the last three years. Against a guy, who never lost a quali-duel to a teammate before.

So what are you trying to say? That Webber isn't as good as Button, who best your driving god last year fair and square

Is as simply as this.

Anyone who knows about F1 can´t simply compare a driver as Button with a driver as Webber over one lap.

Even on the BBC analyse they said Mark was considered the fastest over one lap... until Seb arrived. However I´ll give you a stat for all those who claims those 7 Q3 Mark did well:

Anyone who's seen Schumi in his prime knows that driving a F1 car really fast is not a robotic 'follow the lines and hit the apex'. Of course, not to mention the implication of this comment on Webber's skills, who is being beaten despite Vettel 'missing all his apexes'. But it will be interesting to see next year, as he's joining Webber's former team mate; if Hamilton doesn't beat Rosberg as much as Vettel beats Webber, he might want to rethink his apexes.

Hamilton was outqualified by button last year on many occasions. Now, his fanboys say, he simply had a bad year. But he had a completly bad year. Vettel struggled at the beginning of this season to get to grips with the new car in qualifying. But he overcame his problems and started to dominate webber again in the second part of the season. Overall he dominated his teammate over the last three years. Against a guy, who never lost a quali-duel to a teammate before.

So what are you trying to say? That Webber isn't as good as Button, who best your driving god last year fair and square

First bold) Indeed. The pattern shown by 2011 and the last few races of this season is that the more rear downforce Red Bull piles on compared to the opposition the more remarkable Vettel looks compared to both Webber and the rest of the field. We know he is a good driver and accusations of being an "EBD champion" are harsh but the fact is for most of the last four years he has driven a car with fundamentally more downforce than any other driver apart from Mark Webber. How we rate Webber then becomes crucial in evaluating Vettel. Vettel fans will say Webber is electrically fast over one lap and just below the tier 1 drivers. Vettel detractors will say Webber is a journeyman who showed pace in bursts but isn't worthy of such a good car. I'm not sure what a neutral would say...

Second bold) This is complete conjecture but I would rate them at a similar level, even though Button is a WDC. Some would say that as soon as I do that I have to rate Vettel above Hamilton; well, no. I believe there are two anomalies in the F1 careers of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel: (1) how poor Hamilton was in 2011. (2) how good Vettel was in 2011. If the pattern of last year had continued into this then I would have had to seriously start re-evaluating my interpretation of F1's pecking order, but it didn't. Hamilton has thrashed Button this season, and I challenge any objective F1 fan to claim otherwise. Vettel, on the other hand, has looked much more vulnerable at times than he did in 2011. Ever since a big Red Bull update which restored their downforce advantage over the field he is back to his imperious 2011 spec.

My thoughts on the original matter are that both Alonso and Hamilton (and others actually) have shown they are capable of doing what Vettel so often does; they can both qualify on pole and drive off into the sunset. We don't know if they can do it with the same consistency as Vettel but in my view that's because they have had far, far less opportunities to do so. I seriously rate Vettel's 2011; he was pretty much flawless and loved the characteristics of the car so I'm not convinced anyone on the grid could have beaten him that season as a teammate. However, I don't think we should be in any doubt what has elevated Vettel from one of a number of very good drivers to the class of the field.

Second bold) This is complete conjecture but I would rate them at a similar level, even though Button is a WDC. Some would say that as soon as I do that I have to rate Vettel above Hamilton; well, no. I believe there are two anomalies in the F1 careers of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel: (1) how poor Hamilton was in 2011. (2) how good Vettel was in 2011. If the pattern of last year had continued into this then I would have had to seriously start re-evaluating my interpretation of F1's pecking order, but it didn't. Hamilton has thrashed Button this season, and I challenge any objective F1 fan to claim otherwise. Vettel, on the other hand, has looked much more vulnerable at times than he did in 2011. Ever since a big Red Bull update which restored their downforce advantage over the field he is back to his imperious 2011 spec.

My thoughts on the original matter are that both Alonso and Hamilton (and others actually) have shown they are capable of doing what Vettel so often does; they can both qualify on pole and drive off into the sunset. We don't know if they can do it with the same consistency as Vettel but in my view that's because they have had far, far less opportunities to do so. I seriously rate Vettel's 2011; he was pretty much flawless and loved the characteristics of the car so I'm not convinced anyone on the grid could have beaten him that season as a teammate. However, I don't think we should be in any doubt what has elevated Vettel from one of a number of very good drivers to the class of the field.

Sorry but we are talking about qualifying and you simply can´t compare raw speed from Button vs raw speed from Mark Webber (who had the best average beating teammates on Qualy). And Seb smashed him (a fact).

This season over one lap McLaren had more chances to do better, but despite of it and despite he struggling with the car on the early races, still SV has been (so far, of course) the best qualifier.

It´s impossible to have the same level of 2011 if your car doesn´t suit you. Then to expect the same level of driving from Seb on a year with 7 different winners and the most equal season ever... the only prove you have is SV and ALonso are fighting for the WDC. While others doesn´t.

Sorry but we are talking about qualifying and you simply can´t compare raw speed from Button vs raw speed from Mark Webber (who had the best average beating teammates on Qualy). And Seb smashed him (a fact).

This season over one lap McLaren had more chances to do better, but despite of it and despite he struggling with the car on the early races, still SV has been (so far, of course) the best qualifier.

It´s impossible to have the same level of 2011 if your car doesn´t suit you. Then to expect the same level of driving from Seb on a year with 7 different winners and the most equal season ever... the only prove you have is SV and ALonso are fighting for the WDC. While others doesn´t.

By what measure? Vettel has five pole positions, Hamilton has five pole positions (six if you include Spain, which I'm sure you won't).

So the car doesn't suit Vettel at the moment? Truly he is the messiah. I love your tactical deployment of "the most equal season ever" card by the way. If you commanded an army they would all have been slaughtered in the first battle for being too predictable.

Yeah its a bit of a cheek given that only for a handful of races has Lewis been in anything but a top 3 car in his whole F1 career.

But never in that time a car as fundementally superior as the Red Bull has been for huge chunks of the last four years. Possibly the four race stretch from Hungary - Singapore this year is the closest he has come to having a car truly without peer; striking then that he was on pole three times, won twice and retired from the lead in Singapore.

By what measure? Vettel has five pole positions, Hamilton has five pole positions (six if you include Spain, which I'm sure you won't).

So the car doesn't suit Vettel at the moment? Truly he is the messiah. I love your tactical deployment of "the most equal season ever" card by the way. If you commanded an army they would all have been slaughtered in the first battle for being too predictable.

When you have a season with 7 different winners, with different drivers on pole, with equal cars depending the race, with drivers (as in Valencia) qualifiying 10th just 2 tenths from the pole... sorry if that hurts you, but this has been the most equal season ever in F1.

By what measure? Vettel has five pole positions, Hamilton has five pole positions (six if you include Spain, which I'm sure you won't).

So the car doesn't suit Vettel at the moment? Truly he is the messiah. I love your tactical deployment of "the most equal season ever" card by the way. If you commanded an army they would all have been slaughtered in the first battle for being too predictable.

Well I made a wrong expression (sorry I´m not english but spanish and my grammar is poor). When I said "doesn´t suit him" I really wanted to mean the car was far from last season. Last season the "excuse" was the exhaust. After that the mapping. And after all this "rubbish"... Seb is leading.

This season, Rb has been the 2nd/3rd/4th car of the grid at a lot of races:

Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrein -Lotus was faster-, Barcelona, Hungary, Spa, Monza, Singapore... and last season they did not. And they only were the fastest car/dominant (as last season) at Valencia, Suzuka and Korea. 3 races over 17. While Mclaren has been faster/dominant in Australia, China, Singapore, Spa and Monza. 5 races over 17.

Pre-McLaren Button lost out to Half Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella and Jarno Trulli and was only on par with Jacques Villeneuve and "a 50-year old Brazilian"; started beating him when he turned 60 . The only driver he beat was Takuma Sato.I think it's pretty safe to say qualifying is not Button's strongest suit.

Hamilton was outqualified by button last year on many occasions. Now, his fanboys say, he simply had a bad year. But he had a completly bad year. Vettel struggled at the beginning of this season to get to grips with the new car in qualifying. But he overcame his problems and started to dominate webber again in the second part of the season. Overall he dominated his teammate over the last three years. Against a guy, who never lost a quali-duel to a teammate before.

So what are you trying to say? That Webber isn't as good as Button, who best your driving god last year fair and square

Slight exaggeration don't you think? Also, I don't think that Webber is as good a driver as Button.

Well, you can compare how many temmates has beaten Jenson on qualy. and how many Mark.

However you can start to re-watch (not sure you have seen) 2002, 2003,2004 seasons... and then you would know how extremely fast is M.Webber over one lap.

You also can read that

"Vettel's Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber is no slouch on one all-out lap - in fact, qualifying has always been considered one of Webber's outstanding qualities.But there have been times when Vettel's searing pace on his final lap in qualifying, his ability to dig deep and find time that even the team did not think was there, has had Webber shaking his head in admiration and honestly admitting that speed was beyond him." (from BBC)

P.D. Or you can learn from what "mnmracer" said you.

You have a lot of ways to do it! And in all of them the result is easy: Mark Webber is miles aways fastest over one lap than Button. (Note I´m just talking about raw speed and not race pace. Here imo Jenson is more regular and difficult to beat).